Arbuckle, J. Gordon

This report presents survey results from the 2014 Iowa Farm and Rural Life Poll focused on farmer perspectives on the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy, a science and technology-based approach used to assess and reduce nutrients delivered to Iowa waterways, the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. The intended purpose is to help stakeholders in the agricultural community and beyond understand where farmers stand on the nutrient reduction strategy to inform outreach actions.

Cover crops are known to promote many aspects of soil and water quality, yet estimates find that in 2012 only 2.3% of the total agricultural lands in the Midwestern USA were using cover crops. Focus groups were conducted across the Corn Belt state of Iowa to better understand how farmers confront barriers to cover crop adoption in highly intensive agricultural production systems. Although much prior research has focused on analyzing factors that help predict cover crop use on farms, there is limited research on how farmers navigate and overcome field-level (e.g. proper planting of a cover crop) and structural barriers (e.g. market forces) associated with the use of cover crops. The results from the analysis of these conversations suggest that there is a complex dialectical relationship between farmers' individual management decisions and the broader agricultural context in the region that constrains their decisions. Farmers in these focus groups shared how they navigate complex management decisions within a generally homogenized agricultural and economic landscape that makes cover crop integration challenging. Many who joined the focus groups have found ways to overcome barriers and successfully integrate cover crops into their cropping systems. This is illustrated through farmers' descriptions of their ‘whole system’ approach to cover crops management, where they described how they prioritize the success of their cover crops by focusing on multiple aspects of management, including changes they have made to nutrient application and modifications to equipment. These producers also engage with farmer networks to gain strategies for overcoming management challenges associated with cover crops. Although many participants had successfully planted cover crops, they tended to believe that greater economic incentives and/or more diverse crop and livestock markets would be needed to spur more widespread adoption of the practice. Our results further illustrate how structural and field-level barriers constrain individual actions, as it is not simply the basic agronomic considerations (such as seeding and terminating cover crops) that pose a challenge to their use, but also the broader economic and market drivers that exist in agriculturally intensive systems. Our study provides evidence that reducing structural barriers to adoption may be necessary to increase the use of this conservation practice to reduce environmental impacts associated with intensive agricultural production.

The purpose of this white paper is to provide an overview of the most critical sources of agricultural vulnerability and to outline strategies for increasing the resiliency of Iowa agriculture. This paper delineates pathways toward that goal and provides a basis for community discussions about how we can work together to improve agriculture’s environmental, economic, and social resilience and sustainability.

Iowa farm families have both hopes and concerns associated with changes unfolding across the state, especially those related to the rapid development of the “bioeconomy.” The increasing focus on renewable fuels, especially ethanol and biodiesel, brings both great expectations for grain prices and economic growth as well as worries about impacts on the environment and the structure of agriculture. The 2007 Iowa Farm and Rural Life Poll asked questions about these issues and related topics such as land use and future farm plans. The poll was created in 1982 by Iowa State University Extension, the Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station, and the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship. It partners Extension and research programs with the needs of farm families. Data collected on issues of importance to the farming community provide input to local, state, and national leaders in their decision making process. We thank the many farm families who responded to this year’s survey and appreciate their continued participation in the poll.

This is a comprehensive review of all published, quantitative studies focused on adoption of agricultural conservation practices in the United States between 1982 and 2017. This review finds that, taken as a whole, few independent variables have a consistent statistically significant relationship with adoption. Analyses showed that variables positively associated with adoption include the farmer self-identifying primarily as stewardship motivated or otherwise nonfinancially motivated, environmental attitudes, a positive attitude toward the particular program or practice, previous adoption of other conservation practices, seeking and using information, awareness of programs or practices, vulnerable land, greater farm size, higher levels of income and formal education, engaging in marketing arrangements, and positive yield impact expected. Some variables often thought to be important, such as land tenure, did not emerge as consistently important in this cross-study review. Other variables, such as farmers' sense of place, training, presence of institutional conditions supporting adoption, and the role of collective decision making are not measured in enough studies to draw conclusions but potentially have a relationship with adoption decisions. Implications for how to promote conservation adoption and directions for future research are discussed. Because positive attitudes and awareness of conservation programs or practices are positive predictors of adoption, practitioners should share benefits of specific practices and programs and leverage existing practice adoption. Further work to explore relationships between conservation adoption and the role of farmer identity, nuances of land tenure, and the influence of structural factors is needed. Moreover, we suggest that future research should focus on the impact of different messages and avenues of reaching farmers in order to continue to inform conservation practices. Future research should consider both individual and institutional factors that facilitate and constrain adoption.

This document reports the results of a survey conducted for the Landowners and Operators Caring About the Land (LOCAL) project. The LOCAL project is a joint effort between Conservation Districts of Iowa, Agren, Inc., and Iowa State University (ISU) Extension Sociology. Funded by a Conservation Innovation (CIG) grant from the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), the purpose of the project is to develop and promote market-based incentives that lead farm operators and non-operator landowners to implement conservation-friendly management on rented farmland. The overall goal of the program is to improve the mutual capacity and willingness of non-operator landowners and their operators to achieve conservation objectives. This report addresses objective 1 of the project: to improve our understanding of landowner and operator willingness and capacity to participate in and support natural resources conservation on Iowa’s farmland.

The following report documents the results and implications for the study, “Conversations with non-choir farmers: Implications for conservation adoption”. We conducted 10 in-person focus groups with farmers (IN=5; IA=3; IL=2) and three online focus groups with non-operating landowners (NOLs) who own land in Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa. This research sought to answer the following research questions:

1) What are viable strategies beyond what WFF is currently investing in to promote agricultural practices that that reduce nutrient runoff?

2) How and under what conditions can policies help to change farmer and landowner behavior? What are potential barriers, particularly resistance from the agricultural sector?

3) What do Corn Belt farmers think about the limits to voluntary conservation? Do they see a need to think beyond voluntary conservation?

4) What suggestions do Corn Belt farmers have for how to motivate wide-spread adoption of conservation practices to improve water quality?

5) How could new policies and incentives be tied to existing funding streams (e.g., Farm Bill) or other financial incentives?

The focus group questions were designed to foster participants’ discussions of their perceptions on seven topics related to the research questions: 1) regulation; 2) conservation barriers; 3) market-based policies; 4) conservation targeting; 5) motivations for widespread conservation adoption; 6) communication networks; and 7) certification programs and private sector funding for conservation. The following pages include data from the 13 focus groups – 10 with farmers and 3 with NOLs. We conclude with implications of our findings.